Successful outcomes improvement in healthcare requires strong leadership to make decisions, allocate resources, and prioritize initiatives. For improvement to succeed and endure, health systems can’t leave any part of leadership to chance. Instead, effective governance requires thoughtful, deliberate development. Otherwise, improvement initiatives stall or fail to launch, as stakeholders debate goals and strategies. To succeed, governance structure must be solid enough to withstand any challenges to improvement initiatives—from resource constraints to skeptics. Effective governance in healthcare operates with four guiding principles:
Engage the right stakeholders.
Establish a shared understanding of objectives.
Align incentives and rules of engagement.
Practice disciplined prioritization.